Whence Came the Stranger: Tracking the Metapattern of Stranger in a Strange Land

The premise of this fascinating article is that Robert A. Heinlein wrote Stranger in a Strange Land as an “allegorical recapitulation of Thelema.” The author links Stranger to the Babalon Working through the words of Parsons’ “scribe,” L. Ron Hubbard.

Whence Came the Stranger: Tracking the Metapattern of Stranger in a Strange Land

In 1961 Robert Anson Heinlein published a novel about a young Martian named Valentine Michael Smith. The book, Stranger in a Strange Land (Stranger), burst from its modest initial reception in science fiction circles to become one of the most influential works of the 20th century. Its concepts molded the critical thinking of many important social movements and paved the way for that astonishing period of social, religious, and sexual reclamation that is misleadingly dubbed “the 60s.”[1] Arriving, as it did, at a nadir of American free thought and at a peak of media censorship, Stranger’s publication was a minor miracle and its later mainstream success has always been considered a first class fluke. It became the first science novel to penetrate public consciousness since the days of Verne and Wells and initiated an unprecedented era of respectability for science fiction that opened the door for the Star Trek, 2001 and Star Wars. Stranger also marked a radical departure of form, not only for the author, but for American thought and expression in general. Stranger was the quintessence that transformed the nation’s repressively conformist, post-war paranoia into the overtly sensual, erudite, cynical optimism that epitomized the years preceding the Reagan administration.

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This recalls Heinlein’s link with Parsons. As a part of the Babalon Working, Parsons ‘received’ a short ‘book’ entitled Liber 49 or The Book of Babalon. Parsons claims it was the fourth chapter to Liber Legis, a claim which made him less than popular with Crowley and the OTO. Regardless of this claim, it is a powerful text that deals mostly with the coming of the Thelemic heir. There are two parts in particular that stand out after reading Stranger. The first is part of the channeled instructions to Parsons for the ritual — it advises him to clear his mind in preparation: “Consult no book but thine own mind. Thou art god. Behave at this altar as one god before another.” [101] It is interesting to note that these words were mouthed, not by Parsons, but by his Scribe, L. Ron Hubbard, who was close friends with Heinlein at about the same time the latter was working on his first shot at Stranger. The other Babalon Working quote which stands out, and there are many quotes which are not so overt, comes from Liber 49 which Parsons channeled alone out in the desert — e.g., sans Hubbard: “37 For I am BABALON, and she my daughter, unique, and there shall be no other women like her. 38. In My Name shall she have all power, and all men and excellent things, and kings and captains and the secret ones at her command. 39. The first servants are chosen in secret, by my force in her – a captain, a lawyer, an agitator, a rebel – I shall provide.” (Italics added)
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[1] Most of “the 60s” as a popular movement didn’t even start until around ’65 and didn’t really end until well after Nixon got re-elected in ’72. The most active period occurred between 1968-74 and in fact, most of “the ’60s” are still happening. Referring to “the 60s” quarantines a radical, ongoing, whole systems transition and reduces it to a mere historical fad.

[101] The Collected Works of Jack Parsons, OTO, NY from the “First Ritual of the Book of Babalon”.